Gul'dan - how the warlock we all love to hate has cast a spell over the Warcraft fanbase

With the latest developments of Warlords of Draenor, Gul'dan has returned to the Warcraft universe as a major villain and for his first primary role in World of Warcraft.  Though I don't play WoW, I follow the story and after watching the cinematic from Patch 6.1 when he assumes control of the Iron Horde, I found myself really excited to see where Blizzard takes the plot surrounding one of my favorite villains.

But this begs the question: why is he so intriguing?  While important for lore reasons - being the one who set the orcs on their path to demonic corruption and invasion of Azeroth, etc. - as a character the first orcish warlock has very little depth.  His desires power simply for power's sake and will sacrifice anything and anyone to get it.  He's a textbook sociopath with exactly zero redeeming or even vaguely sympathetic aspects.

Despite all this, Gul'dan is widely considered one of the best villains in the franchise - why?  What makes the Betrayer of the Orcs such a compelling villain?

Gul'dan as he appears in Warlords of Draenor.

Starting with the most basic points first - simply put, he just looks cool.  Decked out in bones and skulls, chains dragging from his robe and ornate shoulder armor, he perfectly fits the profile of an evil sorcerer without being a cliche.  Even his trademark hunch contributes to the overall effect, placing further emphasis on the impaled skulls over his shoulders.  His grandiose design provides a clear counterpoint to the shamans with their simple robes and furs.

Another clear sign of a good villain is if they are in any way scary - be it through their appearance, personality or even something they represent.  Gul'dan falls into the last category and in that sense he's even more frightening than Arthas or Deathwing ever were.  Those two and others like them are fairly straight forward - you can see them coming.  An army of undead or giant black dragon are difficult to miss.  With all his lies and schemes, Gul'dan illustrates a much more realistic fear - of being taken advantage of and manipulated by one of our own.

As his story shows, summarized in the video above by YouTuber Nobbel87, the corruption of the orcs didn't happen overnight.  They followed a path set out by their leaders to do the right thing for the people and driven by their fear of those different from them (the Dranei).  There have been several examples in our own history of that, the most famous being of course, the Third Reich.  The German people honestly believed Hitler and his Nazi party would make their country great again.  The popular support for many other dictators, from Stalin to Mao Zedong, can be attributed to similar reasons.

Grommash Hellscream, corrupted by the demon blood.

I'm fairly sure that some of you are thinking that no one considers world history while playing their video games - and it's true that a lot of people don't.  That doesn't mean we won't react to something that relates to it.  Even if we don't make the conscious analogy, the knowledge is in our cultural memory that a group of people can be swayed to act against their best interests and do horrible things they would not otherwise do.  Gul'dan encapsulates this unsettling tie to our own world and as humans, we tend to be drawn to things that creep us out, even if we're not entirely sure why.

So when he appears in the 6.1 cinematic and appears to usurp authority from Grommash, I don't think I'm the only one who feels a horrified fascination to see what happens next.  Because in a sense, we already do - both from the original Warcraft history and our own.